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Whether you’re running compute-bound applications for HPC or large, in-memory database applications like SAP HANA, you need the right mix of compute resources for the job, while also keeping an eye on price-performance. The vast majority of enterprise workloads run successfully on Google Cloud Platform using our general-purpose VMs. However, as you port more workloads to the cloud, you may need VMs that are optimized for specific types of workloads.

Today we are pleased to announce the expansion of our Compute Engine virtual machine (VM) offerings to include new Compute-Optimized VMs and Memory-Optimized VMs. Both are based on 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors, which we delivered to customers last October—the first cloud provider to do so. In addition, these processors will also be coming to our general-purpose VMs. This means you’ll have access to a complete portfolio of machine types to successfully run your workloads across a wide range of memory and compute requirements.

Compute-Optimized VMs

Compute-Optimized VMs (C2) are a new compute family on GCP, exposing high per-thread performance and memory speeds that benefit the most compute-intensive workloads. Compute-Optimized VMs are great for HPC, electronic design automation (EDA), gaming, single-threaded applications and more. The new Compute-Optimized VMs offer a greater than 40% performance improvement compared to current GCP VMs. They also leverage 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors and can run at a sustained clock speed of 3.8 GHz. Additionally, C2 VMs provide full transparency into the architecture of the underlying server platforms, enabling advanced performance tuning. You can choose Compute-Optimized VMs with up to 60 vCPUs, 240 GBs of memory, and up to 3TB of local storage. Compute-Optimized VMs are currently available in alpha.

Memory-Optimized VMs

Memory-Optimized VMs (M2) offer the highest memory configuration for a Compute Engine VM. They are well suited for memory-intensive workloads such as large in-memory databases, e.g., SAP HANA, as well as in-memory data analytics workloads. Last July, we announced memory optimized VMs with up to 4 TBs of memory. Today’s additions to the M2 family offer up to 12 TB of memory and 416 vCPUs, enabling you to run scale-up workloads on GCP. These VMs are also based on 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors, and these newest Memory-Optimized VMs will be available in the following sizes:

M2 machine types will be available to early access customers this quarter.

Pricing

The new Compute-Optimized VMs will start at $0.209/hr for a c2-standard-4, and up to $3.13/hr for a c2-standard-60 instance. C2 VMs are also available as Preemptible VMs starting at $0.0505/hr. Pricing for the newest M2 VMs will be announced at a later date.

If you’re ready to get started, you can sign up for early access. Once your account is approved for access, you can log in to the GCP Console, use the Google Cloud SDK, or use Google Cloud APIs to launch the new VMs. Stay tuned for updates on beta and general availability.